YouTube Tuesday: Under Pressure

I am probably doing everything possible to avoid doing what is staring me right in the face. We've got boxes. Lots of them. It has been a frenetic 2 days. Boxes came Sunday morning and unpacking began. I have found just about everything I was worried about.

My worry checklist for the last 3 months:

- Piano still work? Check
- Guitars not broken? Check, check and check. {that teeny check was for the ukulele)
- Computers work? Check
- Alabaster, glass and all things breakable intact? Check times infinity.
- My favorite chair not ripped or infested with some sort of moth? Ch-eck.
- 3 inch foam bed pad still in one piece? Check

Now that my fears have been assuaged, I'm finding it hard to regain the momentum I once had. Though I haven't unpacked the sewing machine yet. I fear that if I break open that box, the world will grind to a halt. At least the world of those that depend on me. My kids will be the ones running through the streets half-naked, starving and filthy whilst I am locked away in my own paradise, whizzing together projects I have had saved up for the past 4 months. I broke my own rule of "Thou shalt not participate in hobbies until thine boxes are unpacked" My fingertips are already sore from last night's jam session. But each instrument is tuned up & in fine shape. ;)

But I've got added pressure to get this place whipped into shape. Thursday is Thanksgiving. We are having 2 Marines, a family of 3 and our own family sharing the meal this year. I have my meal preparation very well orchestrated for a low-stress meal prep. But that means I need Wednesday for peeling, chopping, & baking. I really enjoy making *good* food. I love cooking for people. But when my house looks like a box barfing ground, it's not as easy. Breathe in, breathe out. I can do this. Just relax to the tunes of Queen. (i couldn't find the Milli Vanilli remake. but this video is the bomb. haha, bomb)



And while we're at it, I just had to put this one up, too. I was in the mood. My friend lent me her New Kid's on the Block cassette tape & I wore it out listening to them. And, odd fact for the day, NKOTB and Back Street Boys are touring together in Summer 2011. BSB, gag me. The New Kid's were the first & best boy band. Though Boyz 2 Men really had a good thing going. If I could turn back time . . . (no, i'm not posting a Cher video) Though really, it's seriously been 20 years?? I went to the NKOTB website. Danny did not age well. *shame* Though he never really did it for me. Joey McIntyre all the way! And a Wahlberg brother thrown in. Please ignore the Spanish subtitulos. This is the only "original" music video I found that could be embedded. Enjoy the era of when it was ok for boys to wear overalls & not be working on a tractor. Rar.

Millions of boxes . . .

Boxes for me. Millions of boxes. Boxes for free. No, not really. They aren't 'for free'. They're for me. For me to unpack, sort through and toss. I am struggling through the slog of apathy and overwhelming urges to crawl under a rock and wait for it all to go away. Hmmm, can we say 'avoidance' anyone??

Here it is, the 12th of October, 6 months after we said goodbye to Cairo, and I am still stumbling over boxes. I have seen friends move after me that are more settled than I am. I should know, I stayed with one of them this summer, in their new house. I'm here, in my new house, with my husband coming home in 3 days without any room to park our car in the garage.

But really, don't worry. I just had to introduce this preface because it's how I'm feeling. I know that I will get this done. With Spencer home, we'll probably rocket through piles of boxes a day. Those things tend to happen with 2 adults around. I'm also feeling a bit guilty about not posting very often. I just don't feel like I have anything worthwhile to say nor do I have the time to compose my thoughts into anything that closely resembles structure.

We'll cover the last week in bullets: (or dashes, seeing as how I just realized that I don't have any bullets.)

-- Monday, Oct. 5th --
I drove my mom to Montana to my pregnant sister's house. We had a wonderful time together.

-- Wednesday, Oct. 7th --
I drove back to Rexburg. And jumped back into everything.

-- Thursday, Oct. 8th --
Taylor Brooke Andersen was born!!

-- Friday, Oct. 9th --
Chased my tail; ran errands that were long overdue and bought a piano.

-- Saturday, Oct. 10th --
Had all 4 kids home, as I usually do on Saturdays. So you can bet that nothing much of merit go accomplished. I went to my friend's yearly Harvest Dinner; a gourmet feast where I felt like an adult for a few hours.

-- Sunday, Oct. 11th --
Went to church, had a couple over for dinner and games. Children decided to smoke a special brand of crack and act even more insane than they really are, trying to prove the point that I really don't have any control.

And that brings us to today. Today. 2-day. to-Day!! Yeah, let's see what happens.

Meetings

Today was a day of meetings. We were at the school by 9:30 am to meet with the kid's teachers. Turns out, there is another Mairyn in the class. Except she spells it 'Marin'. Go figure! We try to choose unique (but not too wild) names; and this is one of those reasons why. So I asked the teacher if the other little girl could go by her last name's initial. Because, really, these kids are in elementary, Mairyn P. Ha-ha! Mairyn you p! But guess what? That little girl's last name in Peterson. Greeaaat. The teacher suggested they just go by their last names; but c'mon, Mairyn Penrod just is too much on the playground. I think we've settled on going by Mairyn K. Her middle name is Kathleen; Mairyn Kathleen is quite a mouthful all at once, but I sometimes playfully call her Mairyn K. So, that's pretty much settled.

We rushed home to get the upstairs in order for our next meeting. My Visiting Teachers were paying their first visit. Very nice ladies and their combined total of kids came with; 4 1/2 to be exact. The other gal is very pregnant. All under the age of 5. Fortunately, I don't have anything out yet that can be broken or messed up. And if I did, Grant already broke it.

Later in the afternoon, my Hometeachers came. But, I am unique. The bishop thought that I might feel uncomfortable with two men visiting every month or when I needed help, so he assigned me this nice married couple. Hey, I actually have a chance at getting cookies from my VTs & HTs! At each visit, each companionship (of course) asked if there was anything they could do, just call. I told them I'm really in a holding pattern right now. Not much more can be done upstairs until the downstairs is done. It's like one of those 9 square puzzles that you get from a cheap arcade game. You have to rearrange the squares to make the complete picture, with only one extra space. And that's how my house is right now. The computer is displaced to the kitchen because the girls are sleeping in what will become my office, towels are still in boxes because they are being displaced by the girl's clothing which is in the hall closet which will become the linen closet, and so on and so forth.

The last meeting we had today was an old friend to me, but a new experience for the kids. Artichokes. Mairyn picked one up by the stem and asked if we could buy one. Ooo-kay, let's try it. And it was a hit. We actually had a great dinner, but it's not one that can be a regular. Menu: Fresh corn on the cob, watermelon, ripe peaches, & artichoke. And it was fast. I'm going to make it as often as I can before the wonderful summer produce disappears.

Statistics

--> I have taken 5 truck beds full of boxes and packing debris to the dump. It's great because they only charge .03 cents a pound for trash. So you drive up, your truck (or should I say Casey's truck) gets weighed and then you drive into the dumping bay*, unload your trash and then drive back over the scales to be weighed again. Usually the tab was about $2-3.

*The dumping bay*
I must say, it's an odd smelling place. The odor isn't pleasant but not overwhelmingly stinky. Like a sickly, sweet, damp smell. I once got dump goo on my shoes; ugh, I went home, hosed them off** and let them dry in the sun all day.

**another tangent**
Can I say how much I LOVE using that phrase? Hosed off. There have been so many times in my married life when a messy situation would have been so much easier had I been able to just "hose it off". Poopy baby blow-outs, muddy anything, an experiment I called dinner once that had the pot needing a good hosing, I could go on and on. This house thing is pretty great.

--> I have taken 5 truckloads full of things I don't need to the local D.I.; or Deseret Industries (to call it by it's full name and those who are not Intermountain West natives or transplants) D.I. is like a Goodwill shop. You bring by things to donate and then they sell them. I could have had a killer yard sale and (maybe) raked in a couple hundred $$, but really, my time is more valuable than that. I'm a salary girl now, not a by-the-hour drone. And then after the yard sale I STILL would have been taking multiple trips to D.I.

--> Amazingly, I have only ordered pizza twice. Yes huh! Once, last Monday when we were at our empty house for 7 hours, waiting for the trucks that never arrived. And again this Tuesday when I had been up since 7:30am unpacking boxes, taking truckloads of stuff everywhere, moving 135 sheets of sheet rock through the basement window and keeping track of 4 kids that just want their toys!! That doesn't mean I haven't missed Otlob. I have. I just dabbed back the tears and threw something in the crock pot, one of the world's greatest inventions.

--> I have bought 2 window air conditioners and it makes a world of difference. The highs have been between 88F - 95F. I know, mild for a Cairo girl, but when I don't have a cool basement to retreat into and 4 hot, sweaty, tired children, comfort comes first. The past few nights, the indoor temp at 9pm was 80F. I put one in my bedroom and one in the living room (they are at opposite ends of the house) and boy, is it deliciously chilly in here. It has been an even and comfortable 72F all day. I even thought about putting some socks on this afternoon! Then I tried to put my flip flops on.

Here's some quick progress pictures. One place I am completely moved into is the kitchen. It's my base of operations. And if the base isn't in order, nothing is.

Last Thursday:


Today: